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Market Madness

In seventh grade at Park Forest Middle School, the Cardinals team hosts "Market Madness".  Glo has been eagerly anticipating entering something in this fundraiser.

Any child who wants to participate submits a prototype of something they want to make and sell (again, as a fundraiser for their team).  Glo knew from last year that she wanted to make clackers, two golf balls on a string that click together.

The biggest problem?  She had to be able to create 30 clackers for the price of $5.  Yes, the school would give her the $5, and it was up to her to figure out the rest.  There was actually more that went into the business side of the project:  she took polls to see how much kids would pay, what she thought her price point should be, could she actually make them for that price?  Good stuff in my opinion.  With golf balls selling at 10 for $35, it seemed impossible to me.  Not to Glo.

Glo, having a memory like a steel-trap, remembered when we first moved here to State College and lived in an apartment on a golf course.  She remembered the walks that she and John would take along the edge of the green and the golf balls they would find.

Thanksgiving morning, she and John headed out to the golf course.  Within an hour, they came back with exactly 60 golf balls!  Completely free.  Then, they began drilling the holes.  There were some funny stories about some of the golf balls having acid in the middle of them (versus a solid core).

The next day, John and I headed out to Lowe's to find some string.  Five minutes later, the string of choice was found and bought.  For $6.  Yes, $3 worth of string was 2 feet too short.  We donated the one dollar to the school :-)

As a family, we tied the strings and ta-da!  Success!

Come to find out, the first 15 items to sell aren't even due until this Thursday, and Market Madness won't happen for a couple of weeks.  Once again, Glo amazes us with her organization and her go-get-edness!

Comments

  1. I want a pair of those! Seriously. When I was probably 14 my aunt and uncle to me to a fair and I got a some of those and I miss them. Okay, they had more of a glass/ceramic ball and I haven't ever seen them with a golf ball, but when we went to a fair recently someone has those and I was looking for the booth selling them but couldn't find them. Can you buy me a set at the market and I send you the dough? I bet you will be the only person with a customer in Utah?!?!

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